System and method for graphical display of multivariate data

ABSTRACT

Multivariate graphs specific to a company&#39;s performance, alone or in relation to a benchmark, and methods for producing same include defining on a display screen an origin having a first value, extending from the origin at least three axes on the display screen, the axes being generally equidistant from each other and representing a respective variable, plotting on the display screen a value of each variable concerning the company as a point on a respective axis, and using the plotted points to interpolate first segments between the axes on the display screen. Benchmark information, extrinsic to the company, can be obtained, processed into a rating in the same manner as the company data, and superimposed for ready visual comparison of the company&#39;s performance to the obtained benchmark. The benchmark information, if shown, is distinguished from the company&#39;s performance graph.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns the rating, benchmarking, manipulationand presentation of extrafinancial information (e.g. economic plusenvironmental, social, and corporate governance (EESG) data) and moreparticularly relates to a configurable user interface for presentingcomplex, multivariate data of a company and for a company in relation toits sector, industry or other benchmark(s) and permitting explorationand access to the EESG performance of a company.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The business world more than ever is demanding a higher level oftransparency in its statements and reports to the investing public,their executive management and board members and to the asset managementindustry. In part, this is due to the debacles caused by corporatescandals of major enterprises such as Enron, Worldcom, Parmalat andothers in which investors and pension funds participants lost billionsof dollars. Legislation has been passed in many countries to mandateguidelines for corporate governance and accounting. A notable example inthe United States is the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act.

The world has become an instant global village where everybody knowseverything—and nothing. According to Morgan Stanley (January 2005),there are now more than 850 million people participating twenty-fourhours a day, seven days a week in the Internet economy. Also, the numberof mobile phones in use has increased to more than 1.6 billion usersworldwide. Of these mobile phones, more than 20% are said to bereal-time instant Internet devices. Microsoft and its competitors reportthat they have more than 350 million instant message users signed up totheir Instant Message platforms. Due to the rate of informationtransfer, companies are pressed to provide a more detailed level oftransparency and “good behavior.” Value takes years to generate in thecorporate world but can be destroyed within hours.

Many companies make use of their corporate websites to provideinformation to investors, analysts and the press. Based on theinformation provided, the performance of a company can be “benchmarked”relative to their peers. However, benchmarking in this manner issubjective, subject to human bias and is therefore cannot be appliedacross many companies in a precise manner. Neither are tools availablefor ready, objective benchmarking using prescribed or user-establishedcriteria. Over the past eight years or so, the Swedish companyHallvarsson & Hallvarsson has measured the public performance of theInternet appearance for Europe's top 150 listed companies and the clearindication from their data is that above-average share performance isdirectly linked to good corporate behavior and true information sharing.

It would be an improvement in the field to provide board members andexecutive management teams with an integrated view of companies ofinterest. Both from a legal perspective and from a public point of view,companies are under pressure to provide trust, transparency and rightdecision making. The classic reliance on short term and mostly staticeconomic (financial) data is insufficient.

What is needed is more than a company centric view. Within the assetmanagement industry it is acknowledged that about 30% of a company'svalue is based on financial data and 70% is based on soft data. Thepresent invention addresses these and other needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a method providestiered-access to rating data for users at respective client machines whoare connected to a distributed computer network. In this method, anintegrated rating for a company is computed by applying a formula toplural discrete indicators concerning a particular company. Theindicators can be contained in a database and among them there is afirst portion which relate to financial data and a second portion whichrelate to non-financial data. Users at their respective client machinesare presented with a name of the particular company in association withthe computed integrated rating through a first interface component thatis accessible through the distributed computer network. A subset of theusers is selectively permitted to interact with prescribed indicatorsfrom which the integrated rating is derived.

In a related yet further aspect of the invention, a system for rating anentity is publicly accessible by users at respective client machinesthrough respective connections to a distributed computer network. Atleast part of the rating system executes on a host machine withreference to indicators in a database. The system includes a firstinterface component, such as a query-result component (Q-result), whichis accessible through the distributed computer network. The firstinterface component is configured to present to the client machine atleast one company name in association with a respective integratedrating. A processor is configured by software to compute each respectiveintegrated rating as a single rating value which is derived byapplication of a first formula to prescribed ones of plural discreteindicators contained in the database. As noted above, a first portion ofthe discrete indicators relates to financial data whereas a secondportion of the discrete indicators relates to non-financial data. Asecond interface component (such as an authentication-interfacecomponent) is configured to permit only selected users to interact withthe prescribed indicators from which the single rating value is derived.

In more particular aspects, the inventive rating system can include asoftware module at the host machine as the second interface componentwhich is configured to test any cookie passed from the client machineupon connection to the host machine. As well, the inventive ratingsystem can include a software module at the host machine configured toprocess user identification information received from the client machineand to include among the selected users any user whose receivedidentification information satisfies at least one prescribed criterion.

In further particular aspects, the inventive rating system can include athird interface component which is responsive to any permissionestablished by the second interface component. The third interfacecomponent can enable a variety of interactions with the prescribedindicators from which the single rating value is derived, including byway of examples: permitting the selected users to inspect a value of oneor more of the prescribed indicators; permitting the selected users toexport a value of one or more of the prescribed indicators; permittingeach respective selected user to receive an alert concerning a change ina value of one or more of the prescribed indicators; permitting theselected users to alter a value of one or more of the prescribedindicators; receiving from any selected user a second formula differentfrom the first formula, wherein the processor uses the second formula incomputing the single value in lieu of the first formula; and receivingfrom any selected user at least one benchmark criterion for coordinationwith the presentation of the integrated rating of a company.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a method formultivariate presentation of variables concerning a company'sperformance includes defining on a display screen an origin having afirst value, extending from the origin at least three axes on thedisplay screen, the axes being generally equidistant from each other andrepresenting a respective variable, plotting on the display screen avalue of each variable concerning the company as a point on a respectiveaxis, and using the plotted points to interpolate first segments betweenthe axes on the display screen.

In more particular aspects of this method for visually presenting acompany's performance the first segments can extend to the axes andconnect to one another to define polygonal or curved shapes. Also,benchmark information which is extrinsic to the company can be obtainedand plotted on the display screen together with the company'sperformance for ready visual comparison of the company's performance tothe obtained benchmark.

In a related aspect, a mulitvariate graph of variables concerning acompany's performance comprises an origin having a first value, at leastthree axes extending from the origin, the axes being generallyequidistant from each other and representing a respective variableconcerning the company, a point plotted on each axis corresponding to avalue of the respective variables, and a first segment extending betweeneach axis so as to interpolate the plotted points, wherein the origin,axes, plotted points and the first segments are displayed on a displayscreen. As noted above, benchmark information which is extrinsic to thecompany can be plotted together with the company in way that thebenchmark information is distinguishable from the first segments of thecompany's performance graph.

In still a further aspect of the invention, an interface to a ratingssystem that permits a user to zoom in and out to different levels ofdetail comprises an interactive presentation of a rating value of acompany at a first displayable location in the interface, a first buttonresponsive to interaction with the first displayable location, and ahierarchy of parameters associated with the rating value, at least afirst parameter in the hierarchy of parameters being selectivelydisplayable in association with the rating value upon interaction withthe first button to present in the interface data underlying the ratingvalue of the company. The zoom interface can navigate the user to theprescribed indicators from which an integrated rating is derived,present at differing depths in a hierarchy of indicators themultivariate relationships among the variables, and permit interactionwith the prescribed indicators as noted above.

In yet still further aspects of the invention, users can be alerted ofany changes in the integrated rating value or in the value of anyselected indicators. Each alert can comprise electronic message sent toa user address, and can be conditioned upon satisfying athreshold-change in value.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the invention can beappreciated from the following Description of Certain Embodiments of theInvention and the accompanying Drawing Figures.

As used herein, “button” refers to a control that can be actuated by auser through the interface such as by a single click of a mouse button,hovering over an active region on the display, or by pressing aparticular key or combination of keys on a keyboard.

Within the meaning of plotting a point “on the axis” is the visualpresentation of indicia “adjacent to” the axis so long as the userperceives the value of the variable in relation to the axis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary home or start page in a user interfaceconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary search results page in a user interfaceconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary rated-company page in a user interfaceconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates further information that can be included on the pageof FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary page in a user interface constructed inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention showing certainparameters and their respective values that govern a rating that hasbeen calculated for a component of the integrated rating in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary further page in a user interface whichshows data further down in a hierarchy that underlies the integratedrating in FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 illustrates a page providing a different perspective on arated-company than that of FIG. 3 which may be provided in an interfaceconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary further page in a user interface whichshows data further down in a hierarchy that underlies the rating in FIG.7.

FIG. 9 illustrates a personalized page which may be provided in aninterface constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a portion of a My Ratings page that permits users toselect among existing personalized rating criteria or to create newrating criteria.

FIG. 11 illustrates details for editing a particular, existing MyRating.

FIG. 12 illustrates a selection of My Alerts presentable in an interfaceconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention to permitusers to alter personal alerts.

FIG. 13 illustrates details for editing a particular, existing My Alert.

FIG. 14 illustrates a raw data underlying a particular integratedrating.

FIG. 15 illustrates a hierarchy of variables and their organization inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates a hardware and software arrangement that is usefulin implementing an embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

By way of overview and introduction, the present invention provides aconfigurable user interface to a ratings system which presentsintegrated ratings of financial and non-financial information regardingcompanies of interest. The integrated ratings are calculated using dataand formulae that the user can inspect. The methodology, framework andinterface presents an advance in the art by enabling users to explorecomplex, multivariate data of a company, optionally in relation to thecompany's sector, industry or in relation to other benchmark(s). Acompany's economic, environmental, social, and corporate governanceperformance, as well as statistics relating to one or more of these four“pillars,” can be objectively analyzed. In addition, the user can alteror filter the underlying data and formulae to arrive at ratings thattake into account the user's preferences, perceptions, or hypotheticals.

The illustrated embodiment is described in connection with a ratingssystem that is hosted by a host machine (e.g., a web server) andpublicly accessible to users at respective client machines through aconnection to a distributed computer network; however, the invention isnot so limited in application. The executables that comprise the ratingsystem can run on a stand-alone system and can be provided in atransportable format for local installation by a user, e.g., as a CD-ROMor in some other high-density storage medium. Likewise, the database canbe maintained locally, and the local copy can include information on anycompanies, sectors or industries that are of interest to a particularuser codified as “indicators” and arranged in a hierarchical structurewithin the database. At least one processor is configured by software toaccess the database and compute ratings by applying prescribed ones ofplural, discrete indicator values to at least a first ratings formula.This results in at least an integrated rating having a single value.This arrangement is particularly amenable to a pay-as-you go model inwhich users are charged for each company that they wish to inspect,though that same model can be used in a remote, hosted embodiment. Theratings system, regardless of where it resides, preferably is incommunication with an update software module that provides or can obtainelectronically current information on the companies being watched, andcurrent, pertinent benchmark information, and news alerts, if desired.

Referring now to FIG. 1, users of an interface constructed in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention can be presented with anauthentication-interface component on a page 100 which permits thevisitor to login can comprise suitable boxes for entering an accountidentifier 102 and a password 104 and then pressing a submit button 106.Alternatively or in addition (that is, for subsequent connections from aparticular registered-user's client machine), theauthentication-interface component can include a software module thattests a cookie passed from the client machine upon connection to thehost. Cookie technology is well understood in the art and is notdescribed herein. This interface component sets or establishes users as“registered” users once they or their machines have satisfied at leastone prescribed criterion. The “registered” status of a user enables thesoftware of the rating system to control access through the interface bypermitting only selected users to interact with indicators in the mannerdescribed hereinbelow in connection with FIGS. 3-14. For visitors thatdo not have accounts, further buttons can be provided on the page 100 toinitiate a new-user registration. A query-interface component cancomprise a search-query text box 108 for entering a search query and asearch submit button 110. This interface component can be provided onthe page 100 that permits visitors to enter searches and receive limitedinformation in response. Preferably, registered users have access tomore information and reports than do visitors because theiridentification information has been processed by theauthentication-interface component software. The page 100 preferably isa home page served from a host server that manages the rating systems tomultiple, geographically distributed, compliant client machines used byrespective users. More preferably, page 100 is a web page constructedusing HTML and/or DHTML, and optionally includes active elements such asActiveX controls or Applets to provide a rich and dynamic presentationof ratings and relevant information and to include at least a portion ofthe executable code of the rating system as code resident for executionat the client machine. The page 100 preferably includes links 120 todirect users to further web pages that convey information to the usersuch as: the analytics and variables utilized in rating companies;information about the host provider (herein, referred to as the“Independent Rating Company” or “IRC”); investor relations information;and pertinent news articles. The remainder of the page can include textand graphics 130 that inform the user of the capabilities or features ofthe ratings system.

In the event that a user enters a search query in text box 108, searchresults are provided at the client machine by a Q-results interfacecomponent in a search results page 200 as shown in FIG. 2. For allusers, whether registered with the host provider or not, searches can bepermitted that present integrated ratings for companies that satisfy thesearch criteria. For example, the search query “office” may result inone-hundred matching companies including, among others, “3M” and “ABB.”The search query is presented in title line 202 and the resultsincluding the integrated rating for each company in association with thecompany name are displayed in an organized arrangement, such as shown intable 204. For example, the company names and ratings can be associatedin the same row of the table 204. A preview pane 206 can be provided toprovide an abbreviated story or headline on a recent news item. Thepreview pane can be configured as a pop-up alert or dialog box which theuser can select or close, and which can close automatically if notselected within a period of time. Visitors, and more preferablyregistered users, can be permitted to select (e.g., click) the previewpane and be directed to the complete story.

Preferably, only registered users are able to explore the search resultsin table 204 beyond what is presented in page 200, e.g., to review thefour pillars that comprise the integrated rating or the indicators thatunderlie the pillars. Thus, visitors can be presented with an integratedrating expressed as a single rating value in an alphabetic format. Also,preferably, only registered are permitted to establish their own ratings(MyRating1 208, MyRating2 210, etc.) and enter and record notes 212. Adetailed discussion of customized ratings that are displayable throughthe present interface is provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/708,441, filed Mar. 3, 2004, entitled “Sustainability Ratings ForLegal Entities,” and in particular in connection with FIGS. 13A through13F, which application is hereby incorporated by reference as if setforth in its entirety herein. Briefly, registered users can altercoefficient values and/or weightings ascribed to the indicators that areutilized in arriving at the single value rating, and these alteredvalues/weightings are then used by a now different ratings formula tocompute customized ratings, including integrated ratings, componentratings in each of the four pillars of economic, environmental, social,and corporate governance, as well as with regard to categories thatconcern those pillars. The customized ratings result from a formula thatdiffers from the rating system formula in the value or weighting(collectively referred to as “value”) of at least one coefficient andthis “different” formula can be applied in lieu of the rating systemformula that is utilized in computing single rating values fornon-registered visitors. Each user can compute a personalized score thatexpresses his or her own ideology or institutionalpreference/perspective, and these customizations can be saved under oneor more “MyRatings” tabs.

For those selected users who are permitted to inspect the data behindthe integrated rating, a rated-company page 300 can be served to theclient machine in a number of ways, including by selecting an entry inthe table 204 or by selecting an entry in a My Companies list 910, asdescribed below in connection with FIG. 9. A variety of features areavailable to the registered users that enable various interactionsbetween the user and the indicators from which the single rating valueis derived. In the following discussion, the interface componentsoftware permits interaction based on the status of the user as“registered,” and as such the features described in connection withFIGS. 3-14 are responsive to permissions established by theauthentication component.

The rated-company page 300 provides certain basic information 302 aboutthe company being rated including its name, sector, industry, and basecountry in which it has its headquarters of operation. (The sector andindustry that a particular company belongs to can be determined from theGlobal Industry Classification Standard (“GICS”) code for that company.)This basic information 302 is provided in the first four columns oftable 204 to all visitors. There are also links to a corporate web site304 and to stock information 306 concerning the company. The rating fora company displayed on page 300 (in this case, “3M”) is for a specificperiod, and as can be appreciated, a company's rating can vary dependingon the window of time under analysis. A user can select a period foranalysis using pull-down list 308, and the ratings for the company arerefreshed to coincide with the selected time period. The user has otheroptions available for selection, such as to send the present page to aprinter (button 310), to add the company to the My Companies list(button 312), and to set alerts for this company (button 314). Therated-company page also includes a general description 316 of thecompany and its industry.

The rated-company page 300 includes an integrated rating of thecompany's extrafinancial performance, which is expressed and displayedboth as a letter grade 320 and also as a numeric grade or scale 322. Theintegrated rating is computed by the rating system on the basis ofinspectable coefficients and weightings that are applied to theunderlying data. Integrated ratings based on other settings establishedby registered users can be presented under the My Ratings tab 324, suchas in the My Ratings table 326 which shows a higher performance rating(“A”) as compared to that computed by the rating system (“C”), as shownat 320.

The integrated rating 320 is preferably computed from individual ratingsin four principal areas of corporate endeavor, namely, economic (whichincludes conventional financial data such as earnings per share,revenue, profit/loss, as well as more long term oriented qualitativeinformation such as brands, consumer complaints, accounting practices,etc.), environmental (which includes emission levels, regulatorycompliance, etc.), social (which includes workforce issues such aslabor, gender and non-discriminatory corporate practices, etc.), andcorporate governance (which includes board composition, writtenpolicies, management, etc.). These so-called “pillars” are preferablycomputed as component ratings and are thereafter combined in aprescribed manner (as described in the aforementioned co-pendingapplication which has been incorporated by reference) to define theintegrated rating. In the rated-company page 300, the pillars each havea letter grade 330, and any change 332 upward or downward in thatcomponent's rating and the date 334 of such change are preferably shown.

The significance of each pillar can be explained on the rated-companypage 300 or on a separate page. FIG. 4 illustrates further, optionalinformation that can be displayed to the user to explain the pillars.Briefly, the Economic Performance rating concerns a company's capacityto generate high returns on investments. The rating system utilizesindicators that focus on long term revenue growth and marginimprovements through tangible and intangible elements that do notsystematically appear in financial statements. This pillar includesfinancial data and no non-financial data whereas the remaining pillarsconcern non-financial data, optionally in combination with financialdata. The Environmental Performance rating concerns a company's impacton living and non-living natural systems, including ecosystems, land,air and water. Certain environmental aspects are associated with acompany's competitiveness and financial performance (e.g., level of CO₂emission) and the rating system utilizes indicators that are relevant tothese factors. The Social Performance rating concerns a company's impacton the social systems within which it operates. Social performance canbe gauged through an analysis of the company's impact on stakeholders.The main stakeholders addressed in the social pillar are the workforce,the society as a whole and of course the customers, as reflected by theselected indicators used by the rating system. In some cases, socialindicators influence the company's intangible assets, such as its humancapital and reputation. The Corporate Governance Performance ratingexamines indicators relating to the systems and processes that a companyhas in place to ensure that a company's directors and manager act in theinterests of a company, its shareholders, and other stakeholders, and toensure the mechanisms are in place so as to hold managers accountable toinvestors for the use of assets. Each of the pillars is a variablecomposed of one or more categories of indicators that can be manipulatedthrough weightings, coefficients or mathematics to influence theirimpact on the numerical grade 322 of the integrated rating. Likewise,each of the pillars and most of the variables used in the rating systemcomprises a calculation that is based upon values or settings of two ormore underlying indicators whose values/settings can be inspected by theuser.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the components that leadto the calculation of each pillar can be displayed by selecting a pillarfrom the page 300. This causes the hierarchy of parameters that comprisethe value of each pillar to be displayed with each successive selectionuntil the basic source of data for a given parameter has been displayed.In this way, a user can “drill down” and inspect the data underlying arating, and can alter the value or weighted importance of a givenindicator for display as a My Rating. For example, the user can selectthe Environmental Performance pillar 360 by clicking on that portion ofthe display and be presented with further details on the data underlyingthat rating, as discussed in connection with FIG. 5 below.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the integratedrating 320 and the four pillars 330 are displayed together in amulti-axis graph 350. The graph 350 has one axis for each of the fourvariables that comprise the pillars, and, preferably (as shown), anadditional axis for the integrated rating which comprises a statisticalparameter. In this example the statistical parameter is derived fromeach of the pillar-variables. The axes are preferably equidistantlyspaced and extend from a common origin having a first value, which valuecan be defined to be zero if the rating values are on a scale thatstarts at zero. The numeric grade 322 of the integrated rating isplotted on the axis labeled “Overall,” and the numeric grades thatcorrespond to each of the pillars is plotted on a respective axis of thegraph. Preferably, segments are plotted that interpolate between theplotted points on each of the axes. In one arrangement, linear segmentsconnect the plotted points, as shown, to present the multiple variablesbeing plotted as a polygon 352 representative of the company's EESGperformance. In other arrangements, arcuate segments can extend betweenthe plotted points or segments can be plotted on the graph and remainunconnected to the plotted points. With regard to the illustrativeexample of 3M, an “A” rating under corporate governance results in apoint plotted far from the origin and causes an expansion and stretchingof the visual polygon image 352. Within the meaning of plotting a point“on the axis” is the visual presentation of indicia “adjacent to” theaxis so long as the user perceives the value of the variable in relationto the axis.

In accordance with a salient aspect of the invention, benchmarkinformation is coordinated with the company rating to provide the userwith insight as to the relative performance of the company. Thebenchmark information can concern a competitive company, a sector or anindustry, but in any case the benchmark information is extrinsic to thecompany meaning that it is information that is not the same in many ifnot all respects to that which is used to rate the company. The ratingsystem obtains the benchmark information from a database, for therelevant time period set in box 308, and preferably superimposes on thegraph 350 the benchmark performance for each of the variables that isplotted for the company. Preferably, points are plotted for each of thevariables (e.g., the overall and E, E, S, and G variables) in the graph350, and the space between the axes is interpolated or interconnected toform a polygon (or closed-curved object) 354 in a manner that permitsthe company's performance to be readily distinguished and compared tothat of the benchmark data by the user.

A legend 356 informs the user which color, tick-mark, lines, or shapesare associated with the company under analysis and which is associatedwith the benchmark. The benchmark can be compared with the company'sperformance in other ways, such as by way of bell curves; however, thegraph 350 provides a two-dimensional visual representation of thecomparative performance in each of the variables that are presentlyunder inspection. Thus, at the integrated rating or top-level, the graph350 shows comparative performance with respect to each of the fourpillars and the overall rating, whereas at a lower-level, such asdiscussed in connection with FIG. 5 below, the comparative performancecan visually represent particular variables that underlie the integratedrating.

A great number of benchmarking possibilities can be presented to theuser for comparing the performance of a company against extrinsicinformation. A non-limiting set of possibilities includes a comparisonto the universe of all or selected companies in the database, to all orselect companies from a chosen country, to all companies from a chosenindustry (even an industry different than the company's GICSclassification), to a specific company or companies, to the best in theclass of the company being inspected, to personal benchmark criteria, toother companies being tracked by the user in the user's My Companieslist 910 (discussed below), in relation to one or more of the user'spersonalized My Ratings, and to combinations of these possibilities.

FIG. 5 illustrates a page 500 which includes further details concerningone of the pillars, including the variables that resulted in theEnvironmental rating “E.” The page 500 can include other informationsuch as the basic company information 302, etc., but has beenabbreviated in order to focus on the additional features added by thispage. In FIG. 5, details of the Environmental Performance are shown, forexample, as a result of click-selecting pillar 360 from page 300.Preferably, the variables being inspected in the hierarchical list 510are distinguished from higher-level variables, for example, by indentingthe variables being displayed on the remainder of the page. Theintegrated rating 320 is at the top of the hierarchy, followed by thepillars, and then categories and downward to the basic indicators. Thus,Environmental Performance 562 is indented in the hierarchical list 510.The Environmental performance of the company is shown as a letter grade520 in the title line and also as a numeric grade 522. The performanceis also illustrated in a table 570 which shows the company's score ineach of eight categories of information that is used in the grades 520,522 (and hence integrated rating grades 320, 322). The table 570 furthershows comparative performance of the company to the grades received inits industry and sector. The numerical grades set forth in the table areused as values in a graph 550 which plots the company's performance 552in correlation with the industry average 554, as described above inconnection with graph 350. In the graph 550, there are nine axes, onefor each category being plotted as a variable, and another for anoverall rating which is a statistic derived from the other variables. Asnoted above, a registered user can inspect and optionally alter thenumerical values for any one or more of the categories/indicators orchange their respective influence on the overall EnvironmentalPerformance calculation. For instance, if energy, water and transportparameters are not perceived as pertinent to a particular user, then theresulting rating for the company would compare substantially morefavorably to the relevant industry in the illustrated example.

The user can be permitted to experiment with alterations to thequantified data for a given company to see how such changes affect theratings, without disrupting the real data in the database used by allusers. The user can get a “sandbox” version of a company, e.g. byclicking an icon on a report page. This action causes a copy all thequantified data from the company to the “sandbox,” which the user canthen play with by changing the data values. A sandbox company isuser-specific and can only be seen and modified by the user who createdit.

FIG. 6 illustrates a page 600 showing a lower level in the hierarchywhich provides the user with data on certain indicators within thecategory of biodiversity 662, namely the “EN24” family of indicators664. The EN24 indicators are a subset of indicators derived from theGlobal Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) framework; thus, reference can behad to the GRI framework of indicators; however, a preferred embodimentutilizes a different set of fewer indicators, as described herein. Whichparticular indicators are included in a category is decided by therating system provider, but can be edited by the user through MyRatings. Exemplary categories and indicators are listed in the tablebelow. The page 600 provides a letter grade 620, a numerical grade 622,a table 670 comparable to grades 520, 522 and table 570, except ofcourse now relating specifically to the EN24 indicator in thisillustrated page. Optionally, the data in the table 670 can be charted.For example, the EN24.1 and EN24.2 values can be charted, as previouslydescribed, on separate axes and the overall composite of thoseparameters can be charted on an additional axis, if desired. However, avisual presentation of multivariate data is perceived as being morehelpful to users when the number of parameters is greater, as in FIGS. 3and 5.

With reference now to FIG. 7, the performance of a company is expressedfrom the point of view of what is perceived to drive its value. Threeprincipal value drivers that are believed to be influenced by theinformation that underlies the integrated rating 320 that a companyreceives through the rating system are its risks, opportunities andintangibles. In FIG. 7, a page 700 provides one additional oralternative perspective to the integrated rating page 300 discussedabove, and can serve as a home page for a given user who prefers thisperspective (e.g., the page presented upon selecting the home key frompage 100 or upon selecting a search result from table 204). The valuedrivers are those aspects of EESG information that are material to theperformance of companies which are included in the database. Financialanalysts, asset managers, issuers, CFOs and others can use the valuedriver tools which permit selection of parameters as a complementaryoverlay to existing financial services that they receive. The EESGinformation of the company relating to risks, opportunities/EPS(earnings per share) and intangibles can reside in several categories,including: reputation risk, product risk, regulation risk, crisismanagement systems, non-compliance, stakeholder defection, and resourcedependency. There are also sector-specific risk categories, sub-groupsand user-defined categories that can be utilized to define theparameters that govern the contents of a value-driver report that theuser can extract from the rating system. The value drivers can bebenchmarked to industry, sector, etc., as described above.

Referring again to FIG. 7, a hierarchical list 710 of the value driversof risk, opportunity and intangibles permits a user to select a listmember and inspect the parameters that result in that member's rating.The Value Driver Performance rating is expressed, as before, both as aletter grade 720 and as a numerical grade 722. The time period underanalysis 308 and a general description 316 of the company and itsindustry are preferably provided on this page, as is a multivariatechart 750 of the three principal variables and their overall rating ofthe company 752 in coordination with, but distinguished from, theindustry average 754 (with a suitable legend 756 identifying what hasbeen charted).

In FIG. 8, the parameters that underlie the Risk variable are providedin a page 800. In this page, the Risk variable 860 has been selected(from page 700) and is shown expanded to reveal the Crisis ManagementRisk category 862 which is computed from nine variables to have a CrisisManagement Risk Performance letter grade 820 and a Crisis ManagementRisk Performance numerical grade 822. A chart 850 has each of thesevariables as an axis extending from a common origin; however, incontrast to previously described charts, the chart 850 does not includea plot of any statistics apart from the eight variables. A table 870includes the numeric and letter grades of the company, its industry, andits sector, and the numeric grades provide values for coordinatingindustry or sector performance with that of the company.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a personalized page which may be provided in aninterface constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.The personalized page 900 includes navigation keys 120, search box 108,and further includes three principal features: a My Companies list 910,a My Alerts list 920 and a My Ratings button 930. The My Companies listprovides a summary of the integrated ratings for a selected list ofcompanies. A full view button 912 provides further details on theselected companies, for example, in a format similar to that shown intable 204 (FIG. 2). The My Alerts list 920 provides a summary of theuser-alerts that have been established for particular companies by theuser, and a full view button 922 provides a more detailed view of thegeneral settings of each alert, and can be in the format shown in FIG.12, for example.

The My Ratings button 930 presents a page or frame to the user, as shownin FIG. 10, which allows the user to select from existing personalizedratings criteria or to create new criteria. As described in theaforementioned pending application which has been incorporated byreference, users may wish to define their own ratings criteria to applyto particular companies, industries, or sectors to suit theirpreferences, beliefs and perspectives. By selecting a report from thereport list 1010 in FIG. 10, the user can revise a particular one of hisor her My Ratings, and such changes are then available to the usersimply by selecting the desired My Rating from table 326 (which appearson a number of pages in the user interface). If one of the My Ratings isselected from the report list 1010, then a web page or frame ispresented to the user which is populated with the existing My Ratinginformation for the selected My Rating. The user can then edit that databy changing the existing data in the fields 1110, 1120, 1130 of the datarecord, or change the formula that governs the rating calculation (see,again, the co-pending application for discussion on formula editing) byclicking on the proceed to formula editor button 1140. Alternatively,the user can delete the data record using the remove button 1150, orcancel the operation using the cancel button 1160.

With reference again to FIG. 9, if a full view of the My Alerts list 920is selected or if another appropriate button is actuated, the user canbe provided with an alert report page or frame with information such asshown in FIG. 12. The alert report page itemizes by alert name thecompanies that have user-established alerts associated with them, thebasis upon which to generate an alert message (e.g., based on ratingschange activity in environmental performance, EN24.2, or any otherparameter in the ratings system), and the trigger for the alert (anychange, only when there has been an upgrade, only when there has been adowngrade). There is also a status 1210 for each company that is in thealert report watch list which can be an animation advising the userwhether he or she has an unread alert, and a notes section 1220.Preferably the alert name, company name, report item, alert type,status, and notes are combined into data records that are managed by theratings system and stored in a database, and, more preferably, a centraldatabase.

FIG. 13 shows a checklist that can be completed in order to setparameters for a user-established alert, including how and to where thealerts are to be sent. As show, check boxes permit entry of the triggertype and threshold values that must be satisfied, whether as a gradechange (namely, a numerical amount, say, a change from 0.0 to 0.1 orfrom 0.1 to 0.3) or a rating change (namely, an alphabetical gradechange, say, from A downgraded to B or from E upgraded to D), and checkand text boxes for selecting the format for the alert and providing adestination address (e.g., an email or phone number).

FIG. 14 shows raw data underlying the integrated rating of a company,which in the illustrated case is “3M.” The raw data page identifies fora selected period of time a particular indicator 1410 and an explanationof what it represents, a source 1420 for the value or setting used bythe rating system (e.g., a corporate web site), textual data 1430explaining significance (e.g., whether this indicator bears on one ofthe value drivers), comments, files, data status and the quality of theinformation. To the extent that this information can be gathered andreported, it is included in the rating system database and is publiclyinspectable at this fundamental level through the raw data page or byexporting to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or the like.

Raw data for a company can be established in the rating system databaseusing a raw data tool which provides a structure for the data andcontent of the information of concern. For example, the informationstructure can be a data record organized as shown follows:

Number: LA91

Field: Social Performance

Category: Labor practices/decent work

Aspect: Training/Education

Indicator type:Core

Indic. desc.: Average hours of training per year per employee bycategory of employee

Indic. Name: Average hours of training per year per employee

The raw data concerning a particular company (Roche) that comprises thecontent for such a record might read as follows:

Raw Data: “In 2003, Roche employees spent an average 23 hours ontraining, which represents more than three days of training . . . ”

Source: Sustainability Report 2003

Page: 37

Publisher: Company

Author: not relevant

Date: 2004

Scope of Relevance: Worldwide

Quality of info: Reliable

As can be appreciated from the table below, on the order of about 250 toabout 300 indicators are preferably used in the determination of anintegrated rating using the four pillars EESG. The indicator dataconsists of raw and quantified data. Raw data consists of textualinformation about the indicators such as shown in the above excerptedstatement in the example of a Roche accounting report. Quantified datacomprise numeric or yes/no values, which can be manually derived fromthe raw data or from its status if the data is incomplete. In the caseof yes/no indicators, a rating can have a predefined value or acalculated value from related indicators. For example, one indicatorquestion might be “Does the company publish information about CO2emission?,” and if the answer to this is “yes” some other indicatorsabout CO2 will count in the rating; otherwise, the rating is accordedthe predefined value.

FIG. 15 shows a hierarchical relationship among the parameters that arecombined into an integrated rating. At the top of the hierarchy is theintegrated rating 320, 322. The integrated rating is calculated using aformula provided by the rating system, as may be optionally modified bythe user. The four pillars provide the principal variable values whichare combined by the formula into the integrated rating. For simplicity,FIG. 15 shows one of the pillars. Each pillar receives parameters fromone or more categories, though only one category is shown, again forsimplicity. In the preferred embodiment, there are four pillars andeighteen categories, under each of which are prescribed indicators, asshown in the table below.

The categories, in turn, are an amalgam of variables, some of which are“outcome” parameters which have values associated with them, and othersare “driver” parameters which have a yes/no state setting associatedwith them. Outcome and driver parameters receive their values fromindicators. Driver indicators (always yes/no) are about the policies,management systems and tools employed by the company's management withthe intent to improve an issue (which is codified in the rating systemas a “category”). Driver indicators measure the company's realintentions and commitments. Outcome indicators (Value or yes/no) measureif the company has successfully achieved an improvement on a particularissue. Outcome indicators measure observable results which provideindications on the company's standing in respect to a specific issue(again, which is included as a “category” in the rating system). Therating system uses a set of indicators to arrive at the integratedratings described herein. The type of indicators that have been selectedfor use in a preferred embodiment of the present rating system aredescribed within their respective categories as follows:

Pillar Category Type of indicators Economic Revenues/ Indicators show:the commitment towards growth while Client Loyalty maintaining a loyalclient base; Existence of a customer loyalty or fidelity program withcustomer satisfaction programs (Preventing anti-competitive behavior,trust and monopoly, price-fixing). Margins/ Indicators show: the generalcommitment towards low and Performance stable cost base; Existence of anemployee loyalty or supplier loyalty program to avoid fluctuations withsatisfaction programs (Commitment towards production processinnovations, simplified structure, tight controls, overhead minimizationor new sourcing opportunities). Profitability/ Indicators show:Commitment towards transparency and Shareholders shareholder loyalty(keeping long-term shareholders with a Loyalty focused and transparentlong-term strategy); Focus on providing shareholders with a high returnon investments and a solid balance sheet with a conservative accountingpolicy. Environmental Resource Indicators show: Commitment towardsefficient use of Reduction natural resources in the production process;reduction in the use of materials, energy or water; Finding moreefficient environmental solutions by integrating suppliers (supply chainmanagement). Emission Indicators show General commitment towardsenvironmental Reduction emission and impact reduction in the productionprocess; reduction in environmental emissions (Greenhouse Gases, F-Gases, Ozone-Depleting Substances, NOx and SOx, other significant airemissions, waste, hazardous waste, water discharges or spills); impacton biodiversity; Partnering with NGO's, Industry organizations orSupra-governmental organizations for environmental improvement orcommunity goodwill. Product Indicators show: general commitment towardsInnovation environmental products/services innovation; environmentalefficient products (eco-design, life cycle assessment-LCA,dematerialization, extended durability, emission reduction by productuse, etc). Social Workforce/ Indicators show: general commitment towardsemployment Employment and job conditions: employment benefits (salary,profit Conditions sharing, pension plan, health care, other insurancesand other benefits); commitment to long term employment security (Netemployment creation, avoidance of lay-offs, turnover limitation,promotion from within, maintenance of general relations with tradeunions, etc.) Workforce/ Indicators show: general commitment towards jobhealth & Health & safety: Health & Safety in the broad sense,encompassing Safety physical and mental health, stress and well being ofall employees; Compliance to the ILO Code of Practice on Recording andNotification of Occupational Accidents and Diseases or the ILOGuidelines for Occupational Health Management Systems; Qualitymanagement systems like OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & SafetyManagement System) Workforce/ Indicators show: general commitmenttowards training and Training and development (education); developingskills and Development competencies (occupational, human or socialrelations and communication), encompassing programs to support thecareer development and continued employability of employees and tomanage career endings. Workforce/ Indicators show: general commitmenttowards diversity and Diversity and opportunity: promoting an effectivebalance between Opportunity personal (family-friendly policies,vacations, part-time, flex- time, career breaks, maternity leave,sabbatical etc.) and professional development (career planning);promotion of diversity and opportunity (equal treatment between womenand men) and tackling other forms of discrimination or harassment as inthe case of unfair treatment of people with disabilities, or because ofage, ethnicity, ‘race’, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.Society/ Indicators show: general commitment towards the Human RightsFundamental Human Rights convention of the ILO relevant to operations(workforce, suppliers, supply chain management and contractors) orSA8000 (standard and verification system for humane workplaces); Freedomof association universally applied independent of local laws; Exclusionof child, forced or compulsory labor. Society/ Indicators show: generalcommitment towards maintaining Community the company's reputation withinthe general community (local, global and state) through transparentcommunication; intention to be a good citizen in the community, throughprotection of public health (Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection),donations or staff time, accurate advertising, open attitude anddialogue with stakeholders or addressing the needs of indigenous people;intention to respect business ethics (business partners) by avoidingbribery and corruption, setting guidelines on political contributionsand lobbying, paying fair taxes or preventing anti-competitive behavior(anti-trust and monopoly). Customer/ Indicators show: general commitmenttowards improving the Product customer's health, safety and socialsituation; focus on Responsibility quality, customer health & safety andsecurity; preservation of customer integrity and privacy (data security,confidentiality) with accurate product information, labeling andmarketing policy or commitment towards new markets developments(providing the developing world “bottom of the pyramid” with access tothe company's products and services) Corporate Board of Indicators show:general commitment towards corporate Governance Directors/ governanceprinciples related to the Board members; focus Board on a well-balancedmembership of the Board of Structure Directors/Supervisory Board (size,skills, background, experience, age, diversity, availability,independence); Able to ensure an independent decision-making process ina critical exchange of ideas with the Executive Management. Board ofIndicators show: general commitment towards attracting and Directors/retaining Executives and Board members with the necessary Compensationskills through attractive compensations; Remuneration Policy policywhich links compensation to individual or company- wide financial orextra-financial targets; Provision of termination by early termination.Board of Indicators show: general commitment towards corporateDirectors/ governance principles related to the Board activities andBoard functions: Board Committees, Board effectiveness, Board Functionsmeeting attendance, internal organizational structure with allocation oftasks and definition of areas of responsibility. Shareholders/Indicators show: general commitment towards a Shareholders shareholderspolicy: shareholders rights, equal treatment of Rights shareholders(minority), anti-takeover devices Integration/ Indicators show: generalcommitment towards an integrated Vision and and global view (sustainabledevelopment): presentation of Strategy an overall or overarching visionand strategy integrating the economic (financial), social andenvironmental aspects; focus on transparency and communication on allextra- financial issues.

The indicators noted above, once a set has been selected for a givenrating system, can be accorded a naming convention for access, updatesand other manipulation by the software of the rating system. Forexample:pp_[xx_yy]_{D/O}#,in which pp is the pillar short abbreivation (So=Social,En=Envorinmental, Ec=Economic, CG=Corporate Governance), next is thetop-category name (2 letters) followed by the category (again 2 letters)and finally a “D” for driver or “O” for outcome followed by a number.For example, the category can be characterized as Workforce/Health &Safety (xx=“WO”, yy=“HS”). This can be the default tree structure forthe data records from which all indicators can be accessed. Eachcategory starts off with the same 4 driver-indicators: Policy,Implementation, Monitoring, Improvements): The rest of the indicators ina category are outcome indicators and can be yes/no questions or doublequestions or amounts, ratios, etc. An outcome indicator's value can beNot Available (“NA”) or Not Relevant (“NR”). NA means that there is noanswer to the value for the question. NR means there is a value but itis not relevant (e.g. CO2 emission by a banking entity which is notparticularly relevant since this is not a manufacturing entity, butstill is reported by some banking entities). In the case of outcomes,the rating system calculates the performance, the transparency, thechanges over time (“delta”), and the exposure due to particularlylagging performances (“relative standing”) of the data in the indicator.

The underlying data that is sought from a company to populate a givenindicator will either be relevant or not relevant. If relevant, thequestion remains whether there is information or not to populate thatindicator. If there is relevant information, then the performance valuewill go up or down depending on the data itself, and the transparencyvalue will go up because there is public reporting of a relevant datum.If the relevant information is not available, there is no change to theperformance value as there is no data upon which to base a change, butthe transparency value will go down because there is no public reportingof a relevant datum. On the other hand, even if the information is notrelevant, the content of the data itself can impact the performancevalue, and the transparency value goes up because the data, though notrelevant to this company or sector or industry, is reported. If theinformation is not relevant and not available, there is no impact on thevalues of performance or transparency. The outcome calculation caninclude the delta and relative standing parameters or these can becalculated separately. “Delta” is the measurement of changes(improvements or deterioration) of the performance of that indicatorover time. If a company has increased its performance over the past yearthen it gets a bonus in terms of an improved score for doing so.Conversely the company is penalized if its performance has deteriorated.Finally, the “relative standing” component of the algorithm preferablyoperates to penalize companies that show particularly bad performance inindividual indicators as compared to a benchmark. Therefore, the highexposure that a company can face due to having the worst performance inindividual indicators is also taken in account in the outcome grade of acategory because if a company is in, say, the lowest 1-5% quartile for acertain indicator, that is indicative of potentially higher riskexposure.

FIG. 16 shows a hardware and software arrangement that can be used toimplement a hosted rating system as described herein. One or more userscan access the rating system through a portal 1610 which preferablyincludes the interface pages described above and is thereforeweb-browser compliant, and, more preferably, compatible with Microsoft'sInternet Explorer 6.0, and the Firefox LINUX Web browser. Communicationsproceed through a secure socket connection from remotely distributedclient machines at the portal through a firewall 1620 to a Web server1630. The web server communicates with an application server 1640 (e.g.,a Tomcat server that supports JSP/Services) through standard protocols,and preferably exchanging rich text using XML structures. In turn, theserver 1640 communicates with a central database 1650, e.g., a Sequeldatabase, through JDBC.

In operation, users access the portal 1610 through a standard clientmachine such as a personal computer, personal digital assistant, orother device compliant with the web server 1630. User authentication andvalidation services take place after which the user is permitted toinspect data underlying ratings for one or more companies, create useand store alerts and rating criteria and export data to their localmachine. For visiting, non-registered users, only top-level integratedratings may be presentable to the user, if even that. At the back end,requests received through the portal are transferred over to the server1640 at which calculations of ratings are performed for therequested/prevailing time period, for the company or companies that arein the scope of the user's request (e.g., the companies in any searchresults or the companies in a My Companies list). In the event that theuser has selected My Ratings criteria, the server 1640 retrieves storedcriteria from the database 1650 and applies that criteria to stored datafor the company or companies that are in the scope of the user'srequest. The server 1640 also manages any other personalization(including any alerts) that the user may have set, so that messages canbe sent (or be attempted to be sent) to the user regardless of whetherthe user is presently logged onto the rating system.

In certain implementations, the charts and rating calculations can beperformed at the client machine through an Applet, ActiveX component, orby executing a stand-alone application or XML within the client's localmachine environment. In other implementations, these activities areperformed by the server 1640 and forwarded through the web server 1630to the client machine for presentation through the user interface.

Optionally, a “My Key Numbers” button or selection list can be includedon one or more pages of the interface. For example, “My key numbers” canbe a pull-down list provided on the home rating page of each companyaccessed by the user. The user can define certain indicators,categories, or ratings for inclusion in this list or for that particularcompany. Thus, the user could select CO2 emissions, the Social pillar,and the category “human rights” for GM Corporation while the same ordifferent selections can be stored as the key numbers for othercompanies.

Preferably, all textual data is stored in Unicode, a text format thatprovides a unique number for every character across platforms, programsand languages. Preferably, all time data is stored in the UTC timeformat, all pixel-based graphical data is stored in PNG, and all image(photographic) data is stored in JPEG. Preferably, all data creation,modification and deletion in the system is logged with timestamp, user,original data, etc. to enable tracking of any activity in the ratingsystem. This information can also be used for user-access control andbilling.

The rating system can provide reports to the user which concern a singlecompany or a group of companies—e.g., within an industry, country, etc.The time frame for a given report can be for a current year or othertime windows of longer scope depending on values entered into the periodbox 306. Reports and charts can be exported for use in otherapplications such as Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat (i.e., in pdfformat). Depending on the permission level accorded to a given user, thereport can include either detailed or summary information, archival dataincluding historical ratings, and possibly also some or all of the rawdata. From the foregoing, it should be understood that all or part ofthe database 1650 can be exported, including raw and quantified data andcalculated values.

While the invention has been described in connection with a certainembodiment thereof, the invention is not limited to the describedembodiments but rather is more broadly defined by the recitations in theclaims below and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed:
 1. A computer-implemented method for constructing amultivariate presentation of variables concerning a rating of a company,each variable having a unique set of underlying parameters, comprising:associating on at least one computer in a distributed computer networkthe parameters of each variable with plural discrete indicators, theindicators including a first portion which relate to financial data ofthe company and a second portion which relate to non-financial data ofthe company, at least one indicator having a state setting; processingeach state setting so as to assign either a quantified data value thathas been (a) predefined to said indicator, or (b) calculated using otherindicators, among the plural indicators, having a related status to thatsaid indicator; computing within at least one processor of the at leastone computer a numeric grade for each variable concerning the company ona scale that starts at zero by applying a formula that weights the valueassigned to each of the plural discrete indicators associated with theparameters of each said variable including the quantified data valueassigned to each of the plural discrete indicators having a statesetting; computing within the at least one processor of the at least onecomputer an overall numeric grade from the computed numerical grades,wherein the overall numeric grade represents an overall rating of thecompany based on the computed numerical grades for each variableconcerning the company; defining on a display screen of the at least onecomputer an origin having the value of zero; extending from the originat least three axes on the display screen, the axes being generallyequidistant from each other and arranged as a two dimensional chart, oneof the axes representing the overall numeric grade and the remainingaxes representing a respective one of each of the variables; plotting onthe display screen the numeric grade of each of the variables concerningthe company and the computed overall numeric grade as a point on arespective axis, thereby displaying plotted points; and using theplotted points to interpolate first segments between the points plottedon respective axes on the display screen, wherein the interpolated firstsegments are plotted on the display screen and disposed about the originin generally surrounding relation to the origin and wherein a pluralityof the first segments are interpolated between the plotted points thatcorrespond to the numeric grades of the respective variables concerningthe company and wherein two of the first segments are interpolatedbetween the plotted point corresponding to the overall numeric grade andtwo of the plotted points corresponding to the numeric grades of tworespective variables.
 2. The method of claim 1, including the step ofresponding to a user selection of one of the plotted variables by:extending from the origin at least three axes on the display screen, theaxes being generally equidistant from each other, one of the axesrepresenting the selected variable and the remaining axes representingthe parameters underlying the selected variable; plotting on the displayscreen the value of the selected variable and the value of theparameters underlying the selected variable as a point on eachrespective axis; and using the plotted points to interpolate firstsegments between the points plotted on the respective axes on thedisplay screen, wherein the interpolated first segments are disposedabout the origin in generally surrounding relation to the origin,wherein a plurality of the first segments are interpolated between thepoints that correspond to the value of the parameters underlying theselected variable and two of the first segments are interpolated betweenthe point corresponding to the numeric grade of the selected variableand two of the plotted points corresponding to the value of theparameters underlying the selected variable.
 3. The method of claim 1,including the step of providing to a client machine connected to thedistributed computer network an interface for presentation of thecomputed overall rating of the company as a numeric or alphanumericvalue.
 4. The method of claim 1, including the additional steps ofobtaining benchmark information which is extrinsic to the company;plotting about the origin on the display screen the benchmarkinformation for each variable as a benchmark point on a respective axis;using the plotted benchmark points to interpolate benchmark segmentsbetween the axes on the display screen in a manner so as to distinguishthe first segments from the benchmark segments; and superimposing thefirst and benchmark segments.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein theinterpolation interconnects the plotted points between axes by renderingpolygon segments extending between each plotted point on respectiveneighboring axes.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the axes areinterconnected by rendering polygon segments between the plotted points.7. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of axes corresponds to anumber of variables being plotted.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein thevalue of each variable comprises a calculation based upon two moreindicators associated with the company.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the state setting of the at least one indicator comprises ayes/no value.